Mr. Armstrong, we, the tour would like to thank you for bringing some publicity back to the tour this year. We are sorry your luck this year is best desctribed as "shitty". Thank you for all of your years of service. Since this is your last tour, we have some lovely parting gifts for you, including a visit by an aggressive DA. Good luck with that.

cobbles are a different game that is kinda understood. On a mountain the classy decision is to wait.

most folks are disagreeing with Phil.. phil is a bit of a crackhead so i don't really take his opinion...ever. I watch the Eurosport feed for a reason. Phil and paul still think that lance looked back at Ullrich to send a message despite being told directly that he wasn't looking at anyone.

When was the last time you saw the yellow jersey BOO'd at the podium? you could see it on his face that he was wrong.

In the heat of the race and the finale, you cannot say to Contador, ‘wait for Andy.’ Andy didn’t wait for Contador on the cobblestones, either,” said RadioShack’s Johan Bruyneel. “You can’t say to Sammy Sánchez, I’ll let you go because I’ll wait for the yellow jersey. No, there are no gifts in this race.”

i think it was a spur of the moment thing. andy futzed with the chain, contador kept riding along with menchov and the gang.

Cervélo team owner Gerard Vroomen had this to say on Twitter: “Contador just gained a great chance to win, but he lost the chance to win greatly.”

Contador also attacked Kloden last year when he probably would have had a stage win at no risk to contador's GC time.. attacking a teammate shows no respect either. I'm sure it is in other peoples minds on how they view this one.

So i've recently gotten a road bike, and i'm getting sucked into the sport. This is the first tour i've watched and i'm a bit confused.

It's more of a team sport that i thought it was before. So i've heard people saying things like "just get to the front of the peloton, and then just wait for attacks. Dont push it, just fight off the attacks"

How do you fight off attacks? all attacks seem to just fade away by the peloton catching up to them. Does the entire peloton speedup to fight an attack?

also, why would you want to be at the front of the peloton, wouldn't you want to be behind someone to draft them? Is there a difference between riding a few riders back in the peloton and riding in a paceline with a few of your team mates?

i've only done solo rides so far, so i havnt had the chance to feel differences in riding with a large group of people.

So i've recently gotten a road bike, and i'm getting sucked into the sport. This is the first tour i've watched and i'm a bit confused.

It's more of a team sport that i thought it was before. So i've heard people saying things like "just get to the front of the peloton, and then just wait for attacks. Dont push it, just fight off the attacks"

How do you fight off attacks? all attacks seem to just fade away by the peloton catching up to them. Does the entire peloton speedup to fight an attack?

also, why would you want to be at the front of the peloton, wouldn't you want to be behind someone to draft them? Is there a difference between riding a few riders back in the peloton and riding in a paceline with a few of your team mates?

i've only done solo rides so far, so i havnt had the chance to feel differences in riding with a large group of people.

Yes, it is a team sport. Also, it is a cross team sport. No one team or individual can succeed without help from other teams and other individuals. The breakaway is a great example of people helping each other who are on different teams. Also, reeling back the breakaway usually is done by more than one team. The peloton is a swirl of alliances, rivalries, friendships and grudges. My favorite example was last year when Lance made a windswept break that was led by Columbia which, by some magic coincidence he was aware of. Oh, and his best buddy George H. was the person to put the hammer down. Yeah, a real coincidence.

Drafting is the key to all strategy in a bike race. An attack is where someone tries to split off from the group. If a person from the group notices the attack and increases their speed to get behind the person on the attack, they get to follow the attacker but they expend less energy than the person in front. When a second person notices, they too can get into the slipstream. By the time you get back to a dozen or so people in the slipstream, it only takes a small amount incremental of effort to maintain contact. By the time you get to 100 or so riders, the people at the back may not even notice if an attack has happened (think cars at a red light starting up). However, if you are at the back and a gap forms you may not know that a gap has formed until someone screams it into your earpiece. Being on the wrong side of the gap means that someone or some group of individuals within your section must make a great effort to close the gap.

You want to be at the front because of the decreased risk of accidents (hi Lance!). The “Team Leader” usually has someone who is responsible for ensuring that they are up near the front and they are breaking the wind and keeping others away from the team leader. As I said, team dynamics are tricky. Also, the example of being at the back and a gap forms means that if you are stuck in the second group you and your team may need to pull all of the other riders back up. At that point, if the group in front is well organized and strong, you may not be able to make up that gap. Especially if the group in front has several strong teams sharing the work and you have some people who are “helping” by not pushing very hard at their turn.

Now, mind you I’m only a person who watches it on TV, but hey, I’ve watched it for years now.

teams have 9 people.. you figure 6 of those have absolutely no chance maybe even in their life to win the tour. They are Domestiques.. they "work" while the team leaders sit in and wait until they have a chance to attack or go for a sprint finish(depending on the stage) they ride until they blow up and fall off the back and finish up in their own little pack.. then start over the next day.

In the middle of the peleton has a lot of draft since there are a bunch of people up front cutting the wind.. in a paceline with only a few guys there isn't as much blocked. That is why on a flat stage a breakaway will almost always get reeled back in whenever the peleton feels like it. plus the peleton has 130ish riders and most of them are expendable to do work up front. when you only have 4 guys rotating there isnt much time for resting.

If you want a good book to read that sorta covers the basics. Roadie by Jamie Smith is good. he is actually a user on BikeForums.

cobbles are a different game that is kinda understood. On a mountain the classy decision is to wait.

most folks are disagreeing with Phil.. phil is a bit of a crackhead so i don't really take his opinion...ever. I watch the Eurosport feed for a reason. Phil and paul still think that lance looked back at Ullrich to send a message despite being told directly that he wasn't looking at anyone.

When was the last time you saw the yellow jersey BOO'd at the podium? you could see it on his face that he was wrong.

So I only just watched it and figure it's not going to make too much of a difference for Schleck. I'm no rider but from what I just saw he came back really freakin' strong and will no doubt make it all up plus some tomorrow. He charged back into the field and if you see Contador on the finish... well, he couldn't even sprint it out with the others.

It was interesting, a co-incidence perhaps, too that Contador interviewed with a translator after the race, despite interviewing in English multiple times prior to this. Avoid the issue much?

cobbles are a different game that is kinda understood. On a mountain the classy decision is to wait.

most folks are disagreeing with Phil.. phil is a bit of a crackhead so i don't really take his opinion...ever. I watch the Eurosport feed for a reason. Phil and paul still think that lance looked back at Ullrich to send a message despite being told directly that he wasn't looking at anyone.

When was the last time you saw the yellow jersey BOO'd at the podium? you could see it on his face that he was wrong.

So I only just watched it and figure it's not going to make too much of a difference for Schleck. I'm no rider but from what I just saw he came back really freakin' strong and will no doubt make it all up plus some tomorrow. He charged back into the field and if you see Contador on the finish... well, he couldn't even sprint it out with the others.

It was interesting, a co-incidence perhaps, too that Contador interviewed with a translator after the race, despite interviewing in English multiple times prior to this. Avoid the issue much?

Yea, he can probably make it up.. but Andy has been trying to build time up before the time trial since AC tends to be better at that. Contador is being desperate because he can't ride off peoples wheels like he could last year.

pretty sure he was avoiding the issue in english.. he has done a bunch in english including either last nights or this mornings.

The look on his face when he got boo'd says it all. he knows what he did.